The present invention relates to the field of electrical utility distribution and energy storage management and apparatuses and processes associated therewith.
Today's electrical utility providers operate in a quickly-changing environment with limited resources and little room for error. Power demands placed on the utility grid may continuously and randomly fluctuate while the requirements necessary to satisfy these demands change on an hourly basis. Although hourly demands are somewhat predictable, utilities are expected to provide consistent and reliable power, regardless of what occurs in real time. Due to peaks in demand during the waking hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and during summer months, electricity providers contract with “peaking” power plants to receive energy for a limited time as needed to provide power when normal power plant production cannot match demand. Peaking plants are an expensive source of power, so electricity providers pass on some of the costs of providing that power by billing a “demand charge” to certain types of customers based on the magnitude of their highest recorded energy consumption during a billing period. This practice gives customers an incentive to avoid causing spikes in energy consumption, so that electricity providers reduce their dependence on additional peaking power plants to meet service capacity requirements. Minimizing consumption spikes also delays or eliminates the need to upgrade the electrical distribution infrastructure which is primarily constructed to compensate for periods of highest consumption.
Peaks in consumption have also lead utility providers to enact “demand response” programs, where some consumers are offered incentives if they reduce their burden on the grid at designated times or at the utility provider's request. For example, a consumer may receive a payment from the power company each month in exchange for a guarantee that it will reduce its demand when requested. Participation in these programs reduces the load on the grid and may be particularly effective at keeping transmission infrastructure (e.g., transformers, substations) from overloading under peak demand conditions. However, it is often difficult to track whether customers actually comply with their reduction obligation, and determining the amount of reduction produced by each customer may be challenging.
In response to being billed for demand charges, customers have sought to develop inventive peak mitigation and load leveling methods to save money by making more efficient use of their electrical resources. Peak mitigation methods are designed to reduce or completely remove peaks in consumption, such as by turning off loads (i.e., “load shedding”) when peak conditions approach or by using power generation or energy storage to provide power to the site during peak periods, so that the peak power that is actually measured by the electrical provider is lower than it otherwise would be. Load leveling methods are designed to reduce loads during prolonged peak periods by discharging energy storage to supplement grid-provided power to a site, then to recharge the energy storage during off-peak periods to prepare for the next peak period, thereby “leveling” the overall consumption curve of the site and reducing demand charges. For periods where power blackouts and other outages occur, consumers may have backup power supplies installed to keep vital electronics from experiencing interruptions in service. In some cases, the backup power supplies are not frequently used and their energy storage capabilities end up wasted. In other cases, utility providers and customers work together using energy storage devices to mitigate loads at the customers' sites so that the demand experienced by the surrounding grid is reduced, but the energy available to the utility providers for this purpose can be limited or reduced as the customer accesses the energy storage for its own purposes, and the energy may only be used to reduce demand at the site in which the storage device is located.